Frank Discussions
by Quatre-sama
Summary: Written for Wyldon in Goldenlake's SMACKDOWN: Wyldon and Kel have a chat that reveals issues they've both been facing.


Title: Frank Discussions

Fandom: Tamora Pierce/Protector of the Small

SMACKDOWN Competitor: Wyldon

Summary: Wyldon and Kel chat's reveals some problems.

* * *

They set out at dawn the day after Owen's son's naming ceremony, Kel on Peachblossom and Wyldon on his grey warhorse, heading back to the northern border. They rode in silence for the first hour and a half, though plenty of topics ran through Kel's mind. Wyldon looked like he was content, though, so she did not bring up a single one until finally her curiosity got the better of her.

"May I ask you something, my lord?"

He glanced over at her. "In the last three years, Keladry, I thought we had come to a first-name basis. I suspect you're about to ask something of which you don't think you're entitled to the answer."

She flushed. "Last night, when Lord Terrin of Jesslaw offered whiskey, Margarry said you don't drink. But you've had wine in the past—"

"It wasn't a drinking problem," Wyldon said, cutting her off uncharacteristically. "I hadn't reached the point where it was a problem, but I could see it taking that route if I wasn't careful." He looked up at her, his expression sad. "After Vivenne's death, I was too close for my own comfort."

"You strike me as the person least likely in the world to be prone to drinking," Kel said, in all honesty.

"You've always had a tendency to think too highly of me," Wyldon replied. "I was home by myself, and the king had granted several months' leave. My daughters were there in the beginning – but they have husbands and families to return to."

"It sounds like a very rough period," Kel acknowledged. She had never handled loss very well; she could not begin to imagine what he had felt like after being with his wife for nearly thirty years.

"You have no idea." His voice was low and gruff, and he wore a deep frown. "I was fine while my family was around – their loss was as great as mine, though completely different. But after… the manor was quiet, and everywhere I was surrounded by the life she had made for us."

"I never did get a chance to tell you I was sorry for your loss," Kel said softly.

He brushed her off with the wave of his hand. "It was almost two years ago, Keladry. Save your sympathies for my daughter, who experienced pregnancy and childbirth with no mother-figure to guide her. It would not have been so bad, had she a mother-in-law on hand."

Kel nodded. "I can't imagine what I would do without my mother in my life."

"Cherish her while you have her," he advised. "I hope she will be there for you when you choose to start a family."

She snorted inelegantly. "Whenever that may be."

"Any day now," Wyldon said. "All your friends are marrying, are they not?"

Roald and Neal had been married for years. Merric finally found a lovely girl and married her one year past. Even Seaver and Prosper and Owen were married, but she was still unwed, with no real hopes of finding a man to consider. "They were able to return home, heroes from war," she said, laughing. "I'm happily wed to the northern border, and don't see many plans for changes in the near future."

"I tried to talk you out of knighthood when you were eleven," he said, his voice sagely.

She blinked at him. Was he – Lord Wyldon of Cavall - joking?

Finally he laughed outright. "Gods, Mindelan, you look at me as if I've grown another head."

"I-I'm unaccustomed to hearing you speak so playfully," she said, shaking her head. "You baffle me, Wyldon."

"As you have always baffled me," he replied. "Do you know how long I waited for a page with a personality like yours? I didn't recognize it at first because I was so infuriated with your constant fights – and don't even pretend to be innocent, Keladry; any fool knows the difference between falling and fighting. After Joren left, I began to see what you were really made of."

"And you wished that I had been a boy," she said, her tone wistful. She remembered the times he had said as much.

"I was a fool," he acknowledged. "You know it as well as I do. And it wasn't just about your sex – I was foolish about a great many ideas about my training program in those days."

"I would never call you foolish," she pointed out.

"No, you're too polite for that sort of thing. You're allowed to say negative things about your former commanding officers, you know. Take a page from Queenscove's book – I think if you split his tartness between the two of you, you both might be better off for it."

Kel agreed with him. "He says I'm too much like you."

"As much as it pains me to say it," Wyldon began, wincing, "he might be right."


End file.
